<p>Looking for help, which we always find on these boards. Has anyone, or their daughter EVER played Gwendolyn in "The Importance of Bring Ernest", by Oscar Wilde? My D is a wonderful operatic and MT performer but this role has her just plain stuck. She can't seem to get a "hook" into the character as she rambles on and on , with no obvious point in mind. I am really feeling badly for her as she has a G&S show opening this Friday night which has been the worst possible rehearsal experience (tenors stalking off stage and leaving in a snit, one of the "Maids" deciding to have a "nose job" right in the middle of rehersal and then demanding the night of her junior prom off, and another tenor "remembering" today that he had a "prior commitment" on a performance night- and this is a long-time community group. She has help up well through all of it though, playing one of the "Maids" and the full lead on the night that the other, older girl is at the prom, but playing a "straight legit" role seems to have her at sixes and sevens. Can anyone offer assistance? BTW, this is s student-directed showcase piece,directed by 2 seniors, so they are not exactly full of ideas themselves! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Lulu'sMom, my daughter played Cecily, not Gwendolen, but as I recall, she spent a great deal of time ensuring that she really understood the humor in the show. Wilde is a master of word-play, and my daughter found it important to really "get" all the nuances. I'm most definitely NOT an acting coach, so I can't provide any help, but I thought I'd share my daughter's experience as a possible starting point.</p>
<p>Yes, Wilde, like Shakespeare, is all about the language. Not much "action" happens: the conversation is what drives the plot forward. Unfortunately, this is one of those situations where people on an Internet forum can be of minimal to no help; how to play a character and who that character is have to come from your daughter and the director. I am sure she will do fine, and certainly doing a classic straight play like this is great experience for her, and quite different from musical theater.</p>
<p>You are all quite correct about the nuances of language. I think what was confusing her- other than the fact that she is exhausted from late dress rehersals for G&S- is the fact that:
#1- it is student directed and there is not much help forthcoming there
#2- the rest of the cast, with the exception of one other girl, have all taken part in the NYSSA Drama camp, where much emphasis is placed on "method" acting (they sent kids out into the town to study little things and then come back and re-enact a dishrag wiping down a table at Starbucks! I'm sure that might be of great help somwhere down the line, but right now, it isn't doing a thing to move this production along!
#3- what was forthcoming had much more to do with stage direction itself and the dialogue was kind of left to drift along. She stayed home today as rehearsal lasted until after midnight last night and she was comotose(if you notice my typos in the original post, I'm not far behind her!), so I annotated the script for her and she is getting help from a woman on the Boards who is very familiar with the play and is, I hope, going to turn out to be a real life-saver. The problem with my D is, if there is no music, she can't seem to figure out where to breathe or really place the emphasis and Gwendolen does ramble on quite a bit. I keep telling her to think of it as a Russian opera, such as "Onegin", where the arias are very lengthy and all of a sudden, Tatiana starts whirling around the stage ,seemingly for no reason while she is thnking about the letter she is writing (recognize the "letter" scene?)- maybe that will help! This is a real stretch for her and in retrospect, I wish that her first "straight play" had been one with more expreienced directors, but it is what it is and she will learn from it. Thank you!</p>
<p>Lulu'sMomma, not sure if this will help, but if I were you, (and forgive me if this sounds so simple as to be stupid ... you guys know I never mind looking stupid! :)) I would suggest that she just say the lines in a natural way, and breathe at obvious stopping places according to the cadence of the sentence and where emphasis is placed and -- most importantly! -- what the character is trying to convey. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but certainly, the character must seem real, right? By the way, studying how people walk, move, stand, speak, move and even -- yes! -- wipe down a table at Starbucks can be very edifying to an actor, if used properly. It helps make the actor aware of creating a character through his or her body. I heard a senior actor at my daughter's school talk about how valuable this kind of study turned out to be when she portrayed 7 different characters in the Laramie Project and had little other than a few items of clothing and her posture and voice to show the audience she was 7 different people.</p>
<p>Very interesting story about the girl and the play. I understand how those situations can be useful, it's just that, at the moment, it's not much help to my D!One thing she has learned from this is that she definitely DOES need to work on her straight acting and that she definitely DOES NOT want to be a drama major! She tends to overact as a result of too much G&S and opera work, so it's a lot to juggle all at once. I'm sure that if the G&S wasn't so all-consuming right now- and AP exams looming next week- she'd be a bit more settled. Also, I forgot to mention that she is using rather clipped British accent and the others are not, because one can't, one slips in and out, another is trying for "upper class American 1940's" and that is throwing her off too. It's a bit like trying to perform in the tower of Babel!</p>
<p>BANG!!! Okay ... That's me shooting myself in the head for even thinking of suggesting this because it's a dirty/bad/nasty way to go about things, buuuuuut ... given the circumstances, it might not be such a horrible idea to go ahead and order "The Oscar Wilde Collection" off Amazon. That's a BBC collection which includes an "Earnest" that is completely faithful to the play. It'll help her out with the language and is generally a good collection to have, anyway. The first film version is also very good, but more liberties are taken. Stay away from the more recent film version ... rubbish.</p>
<p>Fishbowl, I had to laugh when I read this because the same idea occurred to me. I started to post it and then deleted it. Congrats on going ahead with it when I was too timid to do so ... I figured that most actors posting here would rush in to tell me what an awful idea it is for an actor to base her portrayal on someone else's. :) But it seems desperate measures are called for ... (I do hope the student directors decide on what accent, if any, the characters should have, though! :) I fear that the audience will be confused with so many different ones in play.)</p>
<p>Thanks FishBowl and NotMamaRose- just placed my order on Amazon! Hey, whatever helps at this point and she can always learn from watching a decent production! Thanks so much!
Final dress for G&S tonight and opening tomorrow- deep breath, deep breath...</p>
<p>My D was Gwendolyn and her strength is in acting and she found this a very challenging role. It is all in the timimg and delivery of the lines. It is the way you hold yourself..she is very subtle..although our director had her play G a little up to the side of humor. G can be very funny if the timing is right with the guys. It is a difficult role because of holding back..it is in the nuances of G. I am sorry we did not see this post earlier. My D won an award for this role and would have loved to help. She has AP exams tomarrow. If this play runs longer and you rthink you would like help pm me.</p>
<p>I played her a few years back...she is a really fun character, and I don't think she is very subtle, in fact, I don't think anyone in that play is. they are all so ridiculous. I think G is so adorable and really can come off as witty and ditsy all at once, and her passion for such obsurd things is what makes the character funny in my mind.</p>
<p>I agree with you! My D's director had her play to the absurd side of G and she made her quite comic however, a frien of mine who is a director thought G should be much more subtle..different directors.</p>